The present invention relates to a magnetic resonance imaging system, comprising a plurality of receiving units for receiving magnetic resonance signals from an object, further comprising an image reconstruction device, said image reconstruction device being adapted to receive magnetic resonance signals of said object from said plurality of receiving units and to perform image reconstruction by combining magnetic resonance signals received by said plurality of receiving units using an image reconstruction algorithm.
The present invention also relates to a method of image reconstruction in a magnetic resonance imaging system, comprising receiving magnetic resonance signals of an object from a plurality of receiving units and performing image reconstruction by combining magnetic resonance signals received by said plurality of receiving units by means of an image reconstruction algorithm.
The present invention further relates to a computer program product, particularly for storing on a computer-readable storage means, for use in a magnetic resonance imaging system, and more particularly for upgrading an existing magnetic resonance imaging system, said computer program product comprising first code sequences for implementing a mechanism for receiving magnetic resonance signals of an object from a plurality of receiving units and second code sequences for implementing an image reconstruction algorithm performing image reconstruction by combining magnetic resonance signals received by said plurality of receiving units.
In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) it frequently happens that a region which is not of clinical interest disseminates artefacts over clinically interesting regions. For instance, the aorta may disseminate flow artefacts, i.e., a particular form of motion artefacts, onto the liver. In much the same way, the breast or the heart may cause artefacts over the spine due to their respective motions.
A prior art approach to obviating generation of the above-mentioned artefacts consists in employing a Regional Saturation Technique (REST) which involves applying a so-called saturation pulse to a problematic, i.e. moving area of an object to be imaged, in particular a human body. This technique is well known in the art and effectively prevents object atoms in said problematic area to emit magnetic resonance signals.
However, said technique is often bound to geometrical restrictions, because performing pre-saturation in regions other than straight slabs is usually impractical. Furthermore, the above-described prior art approach suffers from serious drawbacks in terms of scan time, attainable repetition rate, etc. In addition, due to said saturation pulses an amount of radiation absorbed by the patient is increased.